


What dreams are made of

by Bill_Longbow



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Math, Physics, Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, quarterback steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 10:11:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bill_Longbow/pseuds/Bill_Longbow
Summary: Steve is the gorgeous and popular quarterback of the college football team. Tony is Tony. Fluff ensues.





	What dreams are made of

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> My brain needed a fluff outlet after the action packed horror and angst bender I've been on lately. 
> 
> Many thanks to [ Shi_Toyu ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shi_Toyu/pseuds/Shi_Toyu), who changed my grammatical nightmare into something presentable!
> 
> Title and prompt were, unwittingly, given to me by the lovely Meds. Happy belated birthday to you!!

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Tony groused at his friend, who somehow managed to munch on a sandwich, wave at Thor on the field and post a pic on facebook at the same time. Janet had dragged him to football practice, playing her best friend card and “don’t you remember that time I spent four hours, four hours, Tony, at a robotics contest last month”, so he had no choice but to leave the blessed silence of the library and sit here in the blaring sun watching some jocks trying to run each other into the ground. And was Janet satisfied with sitting high up in the bleachers? No, she was not. She insisted on sitting on the lowest row, so she could better ogle her new boyfriend. Which meant Tony could hear all the grunting and yells and what not these cavemen used as a way of communicating with each other.

He sighed and leaned back as the team’s quarterback came onto the field. The true reason why Tony let himself be dragged out here. Steve Rogers was the all American dream boy. Blond, handsome, built like a brick house. Too bad he was probably as thick as the rest of them, not too many brain cells to begin with coupled with repeated hits to the head, only in college because of the sports grant.

Players of the football team regularly tried to make Tony’s day miserable, which had subsided a bit since Tony had kneed Rumlow in the crotch after the bastard had drowned one of his notebooks in the toilet. What was this, high school? There were a few new players on the team with the start of the new year. Odinson, for one, who had taken an immediate shine to Janet, and Tony had to begrudgingly agree he was nice enough. Rogers was another new addition, and Tony had been lusting after him since the first day he had walked onto campus. Lusting from afar, mind you. Everyone knew jocks and nerds didn’t mix.

He sighed again and tried to concentrate on his class notes, filled with so many scribbles in the margin that he had trouble deciphering the actual subject material. He failed miserably as the coach had the players practice throwing and catching. The muscles of Rogers’ massive arms working under his golden skin shouldn’t be this distracting and Tony was pretty sure that shoulder to hip ratio was a biological improbability. Janet held out a packet of gum to him, looking very smug, and he didn’t resist the temptation to stick out his tongue at her. Right at the moment that Rogers turned around and looked at them.

Great. Just great.

He hid his face behind his tablet and designed a jet propulsion system for his soon to be purchased roomba in his head while Janet snickered loudly. Worst friend ever.

Once training was over, most of the players ran for the showers. There was some frat party tonight that most of them would go to, probably.

“That wasn’t too bad, Tony, was it?” Janet asked innocently.

He knew he should never trust her if she sounded like that, but he was still a bit flustered, not to mention hungry and overheated, so he went off on a tangent about how much more interesting the game would be if they would use players who understood the physics of the thing, going on about velocity rates and mass and conservation of momentum. He knew he had made a grave mistake when Janet kept listening to him intently, she should’ve pulled out her phone half a minute ago while nodding at him and pretending to listen.

He looked up to see Rogers standing not five feet away, wiping his neck with a towel and grinning. Tony felt like a deer caught in headlights, unable to move as Rogers took a step closer. “That’s a good point you made there, Stark, but if I manage to make the right sidestep I can gun for an elastic collision, and if I have _more_ momentum than the tackler, I will knock the tackler back with momentum that’s equal to the difference between the two of us, which will likely break the tackle so I can accelerate again.”

Tony realised he was staring at Rogers, slack jawed, when Janet was kind enough to push his mouth closed again. Rogers smiled shyly and shrugged. “Anyway, that’s what I do, see ya.” With that he hurried away, breaking out in a jog, leaving Tony speechless for the first time in his life.

Once Rogers was out of sight, he turned to Janet.

“Did he just..?”

She only nodded and patted him on the back as he buried his face in his hands.

 

~~~~~

 

It was the first football game he ever went to, and so far it really wasn’t a thing he wanted to repeat. But Janet had convinced him Steve, she was on a first name basis with all the players now, didn’t hate him or think he was stupid. So here he sat. Front row again, courtesy of Thor, with a scarf in their team colours around his neck. Next to him was Janet, blowing bubbles and waving at all the players as they entered the field. On his other side sat Thor’s younger brother, who looked even more bored than Tony felt, but who refused to interact, reading a book instead.

Tony perked up when Rogers, Steve, entered the field, accompanied by loud cheers. He waved at the crowd, his blond hair shining in the sunlight like a halo, helmet tucked under his other arm.

The guy was gorgeous. More than gorgeous, he was perfection. He was so far out of Tony’s league they might as well be orbiting different suns. No wait. Steve _was_ the sun. Glorious and vibrant. While Tony was a sad little moon orbiting a sad little planet. When Steve looked his way, he seemed to smile just a bit brighter but Tony was sure that was his pumped up imagination. That smile featured prominently in his daydreams. In those, Steve stepped up to him to deliver the verbal porn of football physics again, but now Tony had a witty reply, making Steve laugh, before giving him his phone number. Or straight asking him out. Or taking the last few steps to kiss him senseless. There may have been a fantasy during a particularly boring class where Steve picked Tony up bridal style and carried him to his dorm to have his wicked way with him.

Loud cheering pulled him from his reverie, he had completely missed the start of the game. He shook his head and sat forward to concentrate.

  
  


He had been wrong, so wrong! Football was the greatest sport ever, so much action, such drama, so many delicious bodies on display. He had been pulled into the game, and after an hour he was shouting with the rest of the fans. Insults at the referee, cheers and victory songs when they scored. The feeling of togetherness was wonderful, and watching Steve play was the cherry on top. The way he moved was unbelievable, there was no one faster than him, and Tony saw what he meant with his collision explanation, he was simply too fast for the defense to get a good hold on him.

After the referee signalled the end of the match, he followed Janet to where the players were partying on the field. He lost her immediately, as she was swept up in an enormous hug by her enormous boyfriend, and Tony felt silly, standing there while the only players he knew were the ones that had tried to give him wedgies in his first year. He made an unobtrusive shuffle backwards, before any of them would notice him, but he was intercepted by a sweaty quarterback who came jogging over.

“Tony! Hi,” he said, making a move that looked like he wanted to pull Tony into a hug, but broke it off to rub at his neck instead. “What did you think?”

I want to marry you and have twelve babies.

“It was a great game, I er, saw what you meant, with the, er, the elastic collision… you move really fast,” he mumbled while hoping some sort of emergency would occur. This seemed like a perfect time for a hostile alien takeover, maybe a sudden volcano eruption, even just a boring old fire would do nicely. He stopped envisioning dramas when Steve beamed at him.

“You did?” He asked incredulously. “Of course you did, you’re a genius, after all, don’t know why I tried to explain basic physics to you,” he added awkwardly, shuffling a bit back and forth.

“It’s hot,” Tony said and held up a hand to his traitorous mouth to stop it from moving on its own again. It made Steve blush, though, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

They just stood there, Steve shuffling his feet, Tony bouncing up and down on his toes, feeling awkward and wracking his brain to come up with something nice and unobnoxious.

“Wanna study some time?” Steve suddenly blurted, a bit too loud, and he received several cat calls from his teammates. Steve shot the culprits an angry look, but his features softened as soon as his eyes were back on Tony. “Meet you in the library tomorrow?”

Tony was, once again, rendered speechless and nodded mutely as Janet appeared beside him to pull Tony out of the locker room. He managed a little wave at Steve right before he turned the corner, and his heart swooped when Steve waved back.

 

~~~~~

 

Steve was smart, and funny, and sweet, and gorgeous, and perfect. Tony couldn’t say these things out loud anymore, Rhodey had threatened bodily harm if he uttered even a single thing more about Steve ‘perfect ass’ Rogers. (Rhodey’s words not his, though he had a point. Steve’s ass might be even more perfect than the rest of him was.) Tony sighed loudly and tried to think up a scenario where he was brave enough to ask Steve out on a real date. The most likely one was the aftermath of a zombie outbreak. It would be very romantic if he asked Steve out despite the fact that his lower jaw was missing and Tony only had one arm left. The way he would say braaaaaaains would convey all the feelings he had and couldn’t utter now. He didn’t want to chase Steve away, he was loving every second of every encounter too much. Steve was perfect, and Tony decidedly was not, and there was no way Steve could want Tony the way he wanted Steve, simple as that. He had done the math, and his math never failed.

 

Their first study date had turned into a regular occurance. Every Tuesday and Friday afternoon they would meet up in the library. They had even claimed their own table, far enough away from the front desk that they could speak to each other in hushed tones, but still within reasonable walking distance of the coffee machine. Tony lived for these dates. They usually sat close together, so they could talk without disturbing others, close enough that Tony could appreciate the little laugh lines around Steve’s eyes, and the way their perfect blue was enhanced by a speck of green. They would bump against each other, in friendly camaraderie. Their hands would brush when they reached for the same book… It was intimate and fun and Tony wouldn’t mess that up with his pathetic crush.

They would meet after football games, too. Tony went religiously now, decked out from head to toe in team colors, and a shirt with Steve’s number on it. The first time Steve had seen it he had blushed and squeaked. Squeaked! It was adorable, and just the thing Steve would do because he was too modest. He really was perfect.

Tony sighed again and laughed when Rhodey threw a pillow at his head.

 

~~~~~

 

Tony paced up and down the hallway. He wasn’t nervous, he really wasn’t. He just had some excess energy, always had been an energetic person, no nerves whatsoever. He knew his thesis by heart at this point. Knew all the possible questions and arguments. He could defend the thing while juggling penguins on a unicycle. He. was. not. nervous. He didn’t know why he was too early, he hadn’t ever been early in his life, but here he was, waiting for his friends and family to arrive and they could go inside.

“Tony, hey!” a familiar voice rang between the tiles of the hallway.

Tony stopped his pacing to stare at Steve. It seemed the blond hadn’t lost his ability to render Tony speechless.

“Hi,” he croaked out. “What are you..?”

He hadn’t asked Steve to come, because it was an intimate thing, only close friends and family. He didn’t feel like he could lay a claim like that on Steve.

Steve smiled, and when he laid a warm hand on Tony’s shoulder he managed to relax a bit.

“You come to cheer for me at all my games, now I’m here to cheer for you,” he said simply, and let go when the other audience members arrived.

 

~~~~~

 

After being kissed and hugged by his family, Rhodey and Janet, Tony stood in front of Steve. He couldn’t stop smiling, he had his first master’s in his pocket. Steve didn’t hesitate, just pulled him in for a big hug, and it was the most wonderful thing ever. Tony would graduate every day if it meant hugs like this.

“Congratulations, Tony, though I’m, er… I was kinda... “

Steve rubbed his neck and looked anywhere except at Tony, which was strange.

“Will this mean an end to our study dates?” Steve said finally, looking a mixture of sad and hopeful, which was even stranger. Before Tony could answer that he was going for a PhD which probably meant even more studying, Steve visibly squared his shoulders and took Tony’s hand in his. “I’d like to take you out on a proper one. Date that is. I want to take you out on a proper date. Without books. But if you want to bring a book that’s fine, too, a bit uncommon, but not unthinkable, please stop me now.”

Tony stared at Steve. And stared some more. Of all the possible things he thought Steve would say, this might have been the very last.

Steve's hopeful look turned into a resigned one. When Steve moved to pull his hand away Tony clung onto it with both of his.

“I would love to go on a proper and book-free date with you,” he blurted out quickly.

The relief that was clear on Steve’s face made Tony step up and press a soft kiss on Steve’s mouth, who immediately pulled him close and held him there, smiling against Tony's lips.

Jocks and nerds really were the perfect match.

**Author's Note:**

> I know nothing about American football, so if you think something is incorrect please let me know. I copied the physics part from [ this article ](https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/physics-of-football4.htm).
> 
> Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://bill-longbow.tumblr.com) or join us on the [ Stuckony discord server ](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) for all things Tony, Bucky and Steve!


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